The present invention relates to a device for dealing with problems caused by glare from the sun, headlights, etc., for all types of vehicles. It particularly concerns a system to permanently increase anti-glare protection for motorists.
Conventionally, protection against glare from the sun is afforded by an opaque sun visor. Because of limitations inherent in known visors, the driver often finds it necessary to resort to a pair of sun glasses, which may not always be available in the vehicle. Even if the driver does have sun glasses, the time required to locate them, clean them and put them on detracts from the driver's reaction time, frequently resulting in accidents and frontal collisions.
Moreover, the conventional visor only allows protection for the driver's left-hand side (for an automobile with left-hand drive), by allowing pivoting or rotation of the visor, from the right to the left, and this system is therefore completely ineffective for the center of the windshield.
It is already known to provide a transparent visor, whether it be complementary to the normal opaque visor or not, in order to increase protection against glare. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,673,118 discloses a device which covers the central and edge portions of a windshield, and includes auxiliary panels mounted to pivot exactly like a conventional visor, but intended to replace this kind of visor, rather than being adapted to it. This device covers the entire width of the vehicle windshield and the auxiliary panels can be pivoted in an upward or sideward fashion (toward the door) or can be left flush in the plane of the main opaque visor.
DE-U8901348 describes a visor whose upper section is attached by a movable hinge to the upper section of the opaque visor in such a way that it may be used in place of the visor and not as a complement to it. A socket is provided so that this visor can take an outside lateral position (door side) and not a central position (central rear-view mirror area).
Generally speaking, the proposed systems offer a solution based on a rotation of the transparent visor around either a vertical or a horizontal axis relative to the roof of the vehicle, utilizing different connecting systems.
The fastening of the transparent visor at its upper left section requires, on the one hand, attachment of the visor onto the opaque visor with movements that are at once coordinated with and independent of the complementary visor and the opaque visor, and requires, on the other hand, a splitting of the opaque visor, i.e. assembly of a visor that would, at times, overlap the entire surface of the opaque visor, leading to multiple manipulations.